Since this thread sunk down fairly quickly in the new "forums" of IMVU and only had two replies before it did, let's see if the topic holds better here.

I have been wondering about it lately - can a racist be cured of racism? Or is just hard, if not impossible to accomplish?

Let us start from the very basic level. We're all human beings, and that means that we inevitably have something in common, whether we want to admit it or not. And even after bad experiences, that's the key to softening one's heart towards those who are born with physically different traits. That's what race or skin color is - a physical trait. None of us could choose what we were born as.

Violence or riots are not a solution - they only create more problems by giving the racists a justification, proving a prejudice right. Pointing to the worse chapters of history is not necessarily a solution either, because we are the new generations, a "tabula rasa", so learn from history but otherwise let bygones be bygones and let us write our very own story to that blank slate.

History was always more colorful than the books or wikis let us know, anyway - they were individuals even back then like we are now, in both sides to be fair.

Culture, of course, is an interesting matter. While it causes both diversity and the feeling of togetherness which is beautiful on it's own, can you be open minded enough to decide what in your culture you're personally willing to change?

I do think it's possible to cure racism, even if prejudice will not be completely eradicated, but at least partially.

I've come to the conclusion there are different reasons behind racism. Sometimes it is very much unintentional....a mis-placed word or sentiment. Other times it down to hatred and fear and designed to attack and hurt.

I think deep down within all of us is an 'ism' or two. Whether it's a commonly held belief 'that all fat people are stupid and lazy'....or 'that all Jews are greedy' or 'all Arabs are dirty and cannot be trusted' or that 'all gays are peverse'.....it is there in all of us, to one degree or another. I will admit there are some people, cultures and religions I can't identify with and my interaction with them is limited and therefore my views may at times be less than agreeable. However, I use my intelligence and make sure any bias I may hold doesn't affect my attitude in a negative way, I remain open and I will go out of my way to learn about what I don't know, to investigate and I am more than happy when I discover similarities and behaviours I can identify with.

Racism, as in the true meaning of the word, in an individual, can be eliminated....through education and knowledge. Fear is often behind racism....not understanding language, culture or religion...plus we live in a society that bombards us with underhand messages, constantly being made to feel afraid of anything we don't understand. Change that, educate people and the fear and mistrust goes.

But, I feel all 'isms' will always remain. No matter how much we learn and progress, there will always be a segment of society who need to blame minorities for their own inadequacies - its much easier to blame lack of jobs on the immigrants taking them then on the fact that some people in our society are lazy and prefer to claim welfare. Some people simply don't want to like particular minorities, they feel superior by knocking others down. That sort of racist will always be around unfortunately.

Last edited by Daise2 on Wed Apr 19, 2017 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Like Daise, I do feel that Racism can be reversed through open-mindedness and education. However, there are always going to be those who like to hang on to negative things especially negative events that happened in the past. There are always going to be those who will have the misguided notion that one race is superior to the other, which is nothing more than a means to hide one's fear and ignorance and you will always have people who like to perpetuate negative stereotypes, because they think that is how it is supposed to be.

In my honest opinion, although the human race has made strides in improving how we all relate to each other, unfortunately we also end up finding ourselves take a few steps back because we hang on to old ways of thinking about one another, instead of being open-minded and really trying to understand one another and finding some commonality.

What I do know is that when racism is truly out of sight and out of mind, you feel like you we can like human to human and the word "racism" doesn't even cross our minds. Thankfully, I've had such moments.

What I do know is that when racism is truly out of sight and out of mind, you feel like you we can like human to human and the word "racism" doesn't even cross our minds. Thankfully, I've had such moments.

Oh I've had those moments many times.

I often feel that way because of the church I attend because it is a racially diverse church. You see Caucasians, Blacks, Latino, Asian, etc all talking and conversing with one another, hugging and laughing with each other. There's also a large number of interracial couples at my church. Seeing all of that always gives me hope that yes, Racism can be overcome if people are only willing to open their minds and their hearts, set aside differences and leave all the negativity of the past in the past.